escaping the g.c.i.

William James in The Principles of Psychology as cited in this essay by Sianne Ngai:

Millions of items of the outward order are present to my senses which never properly enter into my experience. Why? Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind—without selective interest, experience is utter chaos. Interest alone gives accent and emphasis, light and shade, background and foreground—intelligible perspective, in a word. It varies in every creature, but without it the consciousness of every creature would be a grey chaotic indiscriminateness, impossible for us to even conceive.

Sorry about the prolonged blog absence. I am trying to draw back to a focal point or points after a long strange trip into that “grey chaotic indiscriminateness.” So much to do… So it’s time to start thinking clearly – or just start thinking at all rather than merely reacting – again now.